Armidale riders Mitch Bullen and Sam Jenner have been in the medals at the 2015 Subaru Track National Championships held over the last 4 days in Melbourne.
On Wednesday the NSW trio of Mitch, Jamie Green and Peter Lewis were fastest qualifiers in the Men’s Team Sprint and then followed it up with a blistering performance in the final, out-gunning South Australia for the national crown and gold medal. Green set an early fast pace with Mitch continuing the momentum despite a strong challenge from second wheel rival and Commonwealth Games team sprint bronze medallist Matthew Glaetzer (SA). Lewis finished strongly to record a new Australian championship time for the team, stopping the clock in 44.216 seconds.
On Thursday, in the under 19 men’s team pursuit, Sam Jenner was one of four NSW riders (along with Sam Cox, Adam Mitchell and Joshua Toovey) who took the silver medal, finishing as runners up against the South Australian team in the 4,000 metre final with a time of 4:21.257.
Sam then backed this up with impressive rides in the U19 10K Men’s scratch final on Thursday and a cracking U19 25K points race on Friday night – he was in the thick of it throughout with a couple of good bursts off the front in a race that averaged over 50kph.
Then on Saturday, Sam won gold in the U19 Men’s Madison with NSW team mate Nick Edwards. By all accounts this was a thriller with Sam and Nick winning the first two sprints but then not getting up until the last sprint where they grabbed 2 vital points to give them victory by a single point from Adam Mitchell and Joshua Toovey (NSW).
Mitch Bullen rounded off the medals haul with a fantastic Silver in the Men’s Keirin final in a powerful field including Commonwealth Games champion Matthew Glaetzer (SA), two-time junior world champion, Jacob Schmid (VIC), Peter Lewis (NSW), plus South Australian young-guns Pat Constable and Jai Angsthasawit. Mitch took the lead at the bell ahead of Schmid, before a tyre blowout on Lewis brought him and Glaetzer down. Schmid chased Mitch down the back straight, before agonisingly edging him on the line for the win.
Congratulations to Mitch and Sam for a fantastic set of results across the full four days of racing. The full results are online here and there are still streamed highlights available online here.